I am not really sure what to make off it all. It’s all a bit weird to say the least.
I don’t have any great insights so I will keep this post as general observations.
Questions need to be asked of the PSNI. A few dozen people were allowed to go on the rampage through Belfast attacking people and burning businesses with seeminlgy no real effort to stop them. This is completely unacceptable and a massive failure of the police who main purpose is the keep the peace. The PSNI are literally world experts at riot control, for them to stand by and watch such wanton destruction beggars belief.
There are even questions over some police officers with accusations that they were wearing symbols linked to far right groups.
On the topic of the police. @ChiefConPSNI @PoliceServiceNI
What’s the craic with your officers rocking what looks like Threeper patches? Is this some internal unit that has coincidentally gone for right wing militia branding?
Two Numbers are:
52250
53574https://t.co/RYxNLisDjX pic.twitter.com/bHF4Hfcq6K— Brendan Harkin 💀 (@brendanjharkin) August 3, 2024
The sight of people marching down Bedford Street arm in arm under a loyalist flag and the Irish flag is on one level a sign of cross community cooperation, just a pity they are being united in hate.
Following the Southport stabbings, anti-immigration protests in Belfast, Ireland intensified.
Protestors waved both Union and Irish flags.
UNCHECKED IMMIGRATION = LOTS OF PROBLEMS. pic.twitter.com/pKTPehUf1u
— Steve Hanke (@steve_hanke) August 3, 2024
The BelTel reports that ‘Far-right Irish thugs spent night drinking with UDA in Belfast loyalist bar‘ with ‘Tricolour waving anti-immigrant agitators from Dublin treated like ‘heroes’ after day of violence’.
Meanwhile No 10 to hold emergency Cobra meeting after weekend of violence in other parts of the UK. From the BBC:
Downing Street has confirmed there will be an emergency response meeting on Monday after more than 150 people were arrested following violent disorder in UK towns and cities over the weekend.
It comes after Sir Keir Starmer condemned an attack on a hotel housing asylum seekers in Rotherham and promised those involved in unrest would face “the full force of the law”.
Police responded to violent scenes in Rotherham, Middlesbrough, Bolton and other parts of the UK on Sunday.
The Cobra meeting follows some of the worst rioting the UK has seen in recent years, in the wake of the fatal stabbing of three young girls in Southport last week.
The internet has made this situation a global issue, it seems we are no longer immune to the anti immigration sentiment and culture wars that is so familiar in other countries.
Where will it all end or is this the start of something bigger?
I help to manage Slugger by taking care of the site as well as running our live events. My background is in business, marketing and IT. My politics tend towards middle-of-the-road pragmatism, I am not a member of any political party. Oddly for a member of the Slugger team, I am not that interested in daily politics, preferring to write about big ideas in society. When not stuck in front of a screen, I am a parkrun Run Director.
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